Great pics, Ken! Makes me feel just like I was there. That Yamaha V-Max motor makes me drool.

BTW, what's up with Honda? They must be seriously hurtin' due to the economy. It's almost like they lost the truck with the bikes and the road manager said, "Quick! Go get me something with the Honda name on it. I don't care - anything!"

They had bikes there, but they make you schlep through the weed whacker and generator displays to see them. So, it that's where their priority is, who am I to argue?

That's the Gladius. It's stock as far as I know, except for the paint. There were a couple others there; they really are cool. A standard with some motard stirred in, and a hint of sportbike. I like the trellis frame and overall "industrial" look of it. Gladius....sigh...

Yeah, it really is. There was a whole fleet of these guys with custom swingarms that have jackshafts to make the giant rear tires work. You probably remember the solution Big Dog came up with for their bikes before the right hand drive engines came along: primary chain to a swingarm mounted sprocket on a shaft, which then extended out far enough to line up with the rear sprocket. Even if it looked good (it doesn't) there must be a pretty big penalty in performance to have that whole second drivetrain soaking up power.

Yeah, it really is. There was a whole fleet of these guys with custom swingarms that have jackshafts to make the giant rear tires work. You probably remember the solution Big Dog came up with for their bikes before the right hand drive engines came along: primary chain to a swingarm mounted sprocket on a shaft, which then extended out far enough to line up with the rear sprocket. Even if it looked good (it doesn't) there must be a pretty big penalty in performance to have that whole second drivetrain soaking up power.

That's nice. Do you know WHY these people do this? Is it supposed to provide some sort of advantage? Looks really really stupid.

I guess the sportbike crowd can stop criticizing the mote in the chopper crowd's eye now.

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Yeah, it really is. There was a whole fleet of these guys with custom swingarms that have jackshafts to make the giant rear tires work. You probably remember the solution Big Dog came up with for their bikes before the right hand drive engines came along: primary chain to a swingarm mounted sprocket on a shaft, which then extended out far enough to line up with the rear sprocket. Even if it looked good (it doesn't) there must be a pretty big penalty in performance to have that whole second drivetrain soaking up power.

At least with the "choppers" and "custom" cruisers the point of a cruiser was never performance, but looks...for the most part.

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